In 1944, the federal government relinquished control of the nation’s railroads following settlement of a wage dispute.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.

In 1970, President Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court; however, the nomination was defeated because of controversy over Carswell’s past racial views.

In 1977, in one of his last acts of office, President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American who’d made wartime broadcasts for Japan.

In 1981, the United States and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.

Ten years ago: Russian troops regained control of the presidential palace in Grozny, the capital of the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

Five years ago: Michael Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy, was charged with bludgeoning to death 15-year-old Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Conn., in 1975, when he also was 15. (Skakel was later convicted, and is currently appealing.) A dormitory fire at Seton Hall University in New Jersey killed three people and injured 62. Bettino Craxi, Italy’s longest-serving premier during the postwar years, died in Tunisia at age 65. Actress Hedy Lamarr was found dead in her Orlando, Fla., home; she was 86.

One year ago: John Kerry won Iowa’s Democratic caucuses, while John Edwards placed second; Howard Dean, who finished third, delivered a fist-pumping, bellowing concession speech that was viewed as politically damaging. A freighter capsized near the western Norwegian port of Bergen, killing 18.